Las Vegas Shooter’s Brother Describes Him as a Very Ordinary Man

The brother of the man responsible for the deaths of more than 50 people at the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival says he's dumbfounded by the news.

Eric Paddock, brother of 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, describes an supremely ordinary man who never did anything to lead anyone to believe he was capable of the shootings.

“He was my brother. He was a guy. He gambled. He was nice to my kids when they went out to Vegas,” Eric Paddock tells media, including PBS News Hour. "There's no political, there's no religious, there's no any of that stuff."

Eric Paddock lives in Orlando, Fla., while Stephen lived in Nevada. Eric says they didn't see each other often and his kids weren't close to their uncle. He also told the media that he believed Stephen's partner. Marilou Danley — originally a person of interest — worked at a hotel in Las Vegas, and she too seemed like a nice woman. Stephen didn't have any history of mental illness, according to his brother.

Stephen Paddock is the man police say is responsible for what is now America's greatest shooting tragedy. From the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Casino he fired on 22,000 people attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival on Sunday (Oct. 1). For over four minutes he sprayed hundreds of bullets until swat teams located him and approached his room. He took his own life at that point.

Singers Jason Aldean and Jake Owen were onstage at the time of the attack. Aldean was about 15 minutes into his headlining set, while Owen had just finished and was watching from the side. Chris Young also shared harrowing details about his experience. It's not clear why he was there, as he was not a performer on the lineup.

Very little is known about Paddock other than he lived in Mesquite, Nev., a retirement community of about 18,000. CNN reports that he has his pilot's license and his brother said he likes to gamble and that he believed he had several legally-acquired handguns.